A BRIGHT NEW BOISE

A BRIGHT NEW BOISE, by Samuel D.Hunter is a dark comedy about connection, decisions made, consequences earned, and trying to find profit in retail while one employee is actively trying to summon the Prophet and praying for The Rapture.

Set in the break room of a Hobby Lobby, the play opens with manager Pauline (Holly Stephenson) interviewing Will (Salomón Maya) for a part time position. Though he is socially awkward, and a bit twitchy, his past experience gets him hired and Pauline goes off to start his paperwork. When Alex (Devin Wade) the teenage employee who has social awkwardness of his own, comes into the break room Will uses this as a chance to introduce himself to the son who never knew him. To say that it’s awkward is an understatement.

Salomón Maya and Devin Wade
Photo: Darren Scott

When Leroy (Markus Rodriguez) Alex’s fiercely protective adopted
older brother, and “the only person in the entire store that knows anything
about art “ finds out about Will he makes it clear Alex should be left
alone. Anna (Carla Navarro) is another employee
who is sweet but directionless, and who
loves to read but rarely gets the ending that she desires. She tries to
befriend Will but finds connecting with him to be difficult.

The play starts as a comedy pushing the buttons and the comfront
level of the characters, and the audience, with increasingly fraught situations
(and Pauline’s language). As Alex’s disdain for Will slowly dissolves into
curiosity painful truths are uncovered for everyone.

Will has moved down to the area not just to connect with his
son, but also to escape his past from a controlling religious cult and the role
his belief indirectly played in the death of a young man. Alex has more in common with Will than just
social awkwardness – he is also looking for connection and a sense of belonging
and being understood.

Leroy may try seek attention and admiration from a limp attempt
at shock value art via clothing, but his pursuit of an MFA and his devotion to
Alex shows a softer side. Anna is
forever stuck wanting more but unable to find the backbone to truly change her
circumstances. Pauline just wants the
store that she has put her blood, sweat, and tears into to succeed – even with
this dysfunctional staff of hers.

The entire cast is top notch and as these characters unravel
you can see they are all fighting a sense of loneliness, and disconnection from
the world around them. Each is trying to
use something – literature, work, art, music, and religious beliefs – to bring
a sense of order and meaning to their lives.
After all, as Will says, “Otherwise, I’m a bad father working at a Hobby
Lobby, living in his car.”

Maya is excellent as the strictly religious and intense Will,
matched by Wade’s intense but impressionable Alex. Stephenson is very funny and
believable as the perpetually annoyed Pauline who is trying to avoid having to
do employee conflict resolution and Navarro’s Anna is sweet and strikes the
right balance of wishing for better things but lacking the drive to make it
happen. Rodriguez as Leroy is both fierce
and funny as the older brother trying to keep the only family he loves from
falling apart.

Directed by James P. Darvas the show is an interesting
exploration on decisions we make, how people try to impose order and find
meaning in the chaos that is our lives, while remaining darkly funny, poignant, and thought
provoking.

A BRIGHT NEW BOISE is playing at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista through
September 1st. For theatre ticket and show time information go to www.onstageplayhouse.org